LessonsFaṣl and Waṣl: Definitions, Sentence Coordination, and the Requirement of a Common LinkQuiz

وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَى شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ
When they are alone with their devils, they say: We are with you.

In the Qurʾānic passage, the words following “qālū” are reported as the hypocrites’ own speech. To judge the connection with what follows, one must ask whether the next utterance belongs inside that quotation or is an independent report made by the narrator.

Quoted speech and the narrator’s own assertion have different speakers and different functions. A connector that accidentally moves a narrator’s statement into the quoted speech changes the meaning. This shows why syntactic and discourse roles must be considered together.

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Who is speaking matters for clause linkage

Faṣl and Waṣl: Definitions, Sentence Coordination, and the Requirement of a Common Link

وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَى شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ
When they are alone with their devils, they say: We are with you.

In the Qurʾānic passage, the words following “qālū” are reported as the hypocrites’ own speech. To judge the connection with what follows, one must ask whether the next utterance belongs inside that quotation or is an independent report made by the narrator.

Quoted speech and the narrator’s own assertion have different speakers and different functions. A connector that accidentally moves a narrator’s statement into the quoted speech changes the meaning. This shows why syntactic and discourse roles must be considered together.